Buffon refuses to blame penalty on Juventus defeat

The goalkeeper believes the referee made a crucial mistake, but insisted that the Bianconeri lost because there were not good enough

Gianluigi Buffon feels that referee Nicola Rizzoli was wrong to award AC Milan a penalty in Sunday's Serie A encounter, but stressed that the spot-kick was not the reason for Juventus' 1-0 defeat.

Rizzoli pointed to the spot on the half-hour mark after Mauricio Isla allegedly handballed inside his own area under pressure from Antonio Nocerino, but Buffon believes the Rossoneri were simply the better side and were deserving of their victory.

"The replay is clear, it wasn’t a penalty, but that wasn’t the reason behind our defeat," the goalkeeper was quoted as saying on the club's official website.

"We had an hour to get back into it and weren’t able to do so. There are many incidents like that over the course of a season.

"If people want to find excuses for a defeat, it’s simple, but I believe the best way of explaining it would be to say that the opposition were better than us and we deserved to lose.

"Having said that, you have to ask why we lost. It’s not easy to work out. We were missing something and that was evident. We had time to get back on level terms but we didn’t ever create the right opportunity."